Merry Christmas to all our Friends and Family

We wanted to take a moment to thank each of you for your thoughts, support, and prayers during this time. We would not have been able to handle some of the ups and downs without each of you. We look forward to Christmas knowing that even if Madison can't be with us she is in our hearts and she is part of God's plan for our life. I am sure we will have a hard time over the next few days, especially on Christmas day knowing that she is so far away but we will take comfort in knowing that she is taken care of and in God's hands. We ask that you all continue to pray for the adoption process, not only ours but all of the adoptions in Guatemala.

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas tree and one of the many ornaments we have for Madison.

Isn't she Gorgeous!

When we checked our email a little while ago we were blessed with an early Christmas present. We received new pictures of Madison. In the pictures she is 8 months and 25 days old and weighs 20 pounds and 13 ounces. The medical report stated that she is developing normally and is very active and curious. She also evidently has what they described as "with certain grade of flu" which I can only guess is a cold that could be the flu. They are giving her medicine for that so that she does not get worse. She is changing so much that I can't believe it; she is changing from a baby to a little girl more and more each month.
The pictures are bitter sweet because of course we would rather have received information that we could go bring her home but we will take pictures any day instead of no news. We know that God is in control of the adoption and that even when we don't understand his timing is perfect. I can tell you that the "hurry up and wait" theory I learned in band in college does not work with adoptions.
We also received a phone call from the foster family last week. Which at first we were upset by the phone call because the neighbor they had trouble translating. We thought that she was telling us that the foster family thought we didn't care about Madison because we had not called them. I could not get her to understand that we didn't call because we don't speak Spanish but that we care more than we can say. During the phone call they did hold the phone up to Madison and we could hear her laughing, Hearing that made both Wayne and myself cry. After the phone call we were upset but the miscommunication so we called our friends Enrique and Chrissie who were willing to call the foster family and talk to them for us. Enrique called and explained to them that we do care and the only reason we haven't called is because we don't speak Spanish. He also found out that they never felt like we didn't care but instead they were trying to tell us that when we finally get to bring her home they are going to miss her terribly. She has become a part of their family. They also wanted to let us know that she is doing well and has almost out grown all of the clothes we left for her. They also wished us a Merry Christmas.
We are so thankful that she is with a foster family who cares so much. We never have doubts about her care she is receiving or about her not being loved.

We wanted to say a special Thank You to Enrique and Chrissie for helping us with the phone call.

As always please keep the adoption in your prayers.

Still waiting to be re-submitted back into PGN for the Guatemalan approval.

Well at this point we are still in the waiting process to be re-submitted into PGN. We did find out the reason for our case being kicked out. There were evidently some issues with the birthmother's signature. We were told that her signature on her ID card did not match the signature on the paperwork. Which at first can be alarming but when Wayne and I thought about it we understood. First of all if she had to sign as many papers as we did then her signature changed a little with each document. Secondly, how many of us have the EXACT signature each time we sign our name? We are currently waiting for a certified copy of the page in the Central Registry where she signed. As soon as our attorney has this then he will re-submit our case back to PGN. We were told this week that they were hoping our case would be re-submitted by the end of the week but as of Friday that had not happened. This set back is very disappointing and it just makes is longer before Madison can come home, but we still remain Faithful that everything will work out. The hardest thing is knowing that she is changing so much each day and we are missing out on it all. I just keep reminding myself that we have so many more years to look forward to and to just remember that once she is home she will be here forever. She has no idea what she is in store for once she gets here. She has a ton of family and friends just chomping at the bit to get their hands on her and spoil her.
In the mean time we are getting ready for Christmas but Madison is not being forgotten. We have a stocking hung for her, ornaments we bought for her on our tree, and lots of presents waiting for her. We also mailed a small package to the foster family. We put several small presents for her in the package as well as a present for the foster family. We are just praying that it gets to them without any issues. It is extremely hard to know that she will be celebrating her very first Christmas without us but she will definitely be in our thoughts and prayers during this time. She also better look out for next year because Christmas will be soooo much fun.